Sport

Quigg named Britain's best young boxer of the year

SCOTT Quigg has joined a prestigious list of the country’s greatest ever fighters after being voted Britain’s best young boxer of the year by the British Boxing Writers Club.

The 23-year-old Bury boxer, who trains out of Amir Khan’s Gloves Gym in Bolton, pipped heavyweight hope Tyson Fury by a single vote in one of the closest polls in the 61-year history of the club.

He will now be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, Naseem Hamed, Nigel Benn, Frank Bruno, Barry McGuigan and John Conteh, who all received the honour before going on to become world champion.

Joe Gallagher, Quigg’s trainer, said: “There was an excellent field this year so this was a very tough award to win.

“A lot of people will have expected Tyson Fury to win as he makes a lot of noise, but this just shows what high regard Scott is held in by those in the know.”

Quigg, who has won 24 and drawn one of his 25 professional fights, beat Jason Booth last October to become British super-bantamweight champion and successfully defended his title against Jamie Arthur at the Reebok earlier this year.

His next bout will be on the undercard of Ricky Hatton’s comeback fight at the Manchester Arena on November 24, when he will take on Rendall Munroe in a re-run of their WBA interim super-bantamweight title bout.

Their first fight – at the Manchester Velodrome in June – ended as a technical draw after a clash of heads in the third round opened up a deep cut over Munroe’s eye.

Before the rematch, Quigg will receive the Geoffrey Simpson award at the Boxing Writers' annual dinner at London’s Savoy Hotel on Monday, October 15.